text:
field & stream expo
How Hunting Makes Better Soldiers
By Outdoor Life Online Editor
Second Winner
Skills That Count
Maj. Jonathan W. Fox, U.S. Army
?North Pole, AK** When I first joined the U.S. Army at 18, I put down my rifle, bow, traps and shotgun and picked up an M-16A1 rifle. For an infantryman, shooting is a critical skill. I was amazed to find that many, even most, of my fellow recruits had never fired a weapon. I was astounded by that, since growing up I went from a BB gun to a single-shot .22 to a single-shot .410 on up. My father taught me and my brothers right when he insisted we all learn how to handle firearms safely and that we start with a single-shot weapon. Make that first shot count. As I grew older hunting the North Woods of Wisconsin, I learned how to sit still for hours at a time, how to blend into the shadows, to always have a backdrop breaking up my ?silhouette. Still-hunting for whitetail deer taught me many lessons: move slowly; watch your step; look for the flick of an ear, the glint of an antler, the outline of a deer's back. Look through the forest""not at it. Simply be as observant of your surroundings as you can possibly be. When we started patrolling, it was obvious most soldiers were not used to walking in the woods. I learned at a very young age some easy lessons that many of my comrades had yet to learn: don't follow too closely or you'll catch a branch in the face; movement is easier to spot; use the shadows; walk on the balls of your feet. When my father, brothers or I shot game, whether it was grouse, snowshoe hare, deer or bear, I observed life leaving the animal. I saw what was inside. I am not ashamed to say that I cried the first time I shot a young spike buck when I was 11 years old. It taught me about much more than just harvesting that young buck; it also taught me about life and death""how precious life is and the finality of death. Hunting has, without a doubt, played a great role in making me the infantry soldier I am now. I currently am fighting in the streets of Mosul in northern Iraq. Where I am stationed is surely not the woods of northern Wisconsin or Alaska, but an urban jungle. However, the skills I learned through trial and error in those woods have helped keep me and my fellow soldiers alive. The lessons I learned as a young man hunting are as poignant now as they were back then. Probably more so, since what I'm hunting shoots back! The enemy here leaves sign""they can't help it much more than a big buck can. Just as that buck leaves tracks, the enemy sniper leaves footprints in old, dusty buildings. The enemy's muzzle blast blows dust and sand off the broken windowsill. The enemy can't hide his caches without disturbing something""dug-up ground, torn-up vegetation. Instead of animal scat, we find empty shell casings. Just as rubs or scrapes let you know a buck is working the area, an IED blast lets you know the enemy is working the area. Choose a building or a piece of terrain with good fields of fire, good routes in or out with cover and concealment. Getting to your hide site undetected is very similar to getting to your deer stand. Then be patient. Many big-game animals have walked through an area undetected simply because the hunter did not have the patience or discipline to hold fast and wait. As there is a profound sense of accomplishment upon killing a nice buck, there is an even greater sense of accomplishment in killing an insurgent who was in the act of emplacing an IED. As a hunter you've provided food for your family. As a soldier you've allowed your men a secure route. Both indeed sustain life. The transition from hunting to being an infantryman is natural and almost seamless; however, failure in a hunter's mission rarely brings about his death in the modern world, whereas failure in an infantryman's mission can mean death for him and his buddies. I've found throughout my military career that hunters make the best soldiers. Skilled inOutdoor Life Online Editor
First Runner-Up
S.Sgt. Russell B. Miller
Chandler, AZ** Buffalo season closed at dusk on New Year's Eve. "The dumbest buffalo in Arizona just outwitted me for ten days," I observed as our final campfire of 2001 held back the deepening snow. Though nobody in our party spotted the elusive timber-dwelling bison of the Grand Canyon's North Rim, we still celebrated a memorable hunt. I heralded 2002 guessing that I'd soon trade my .300 Winchester for an M16. The world had changed in the months since I'd drawn my coveted tag: America had been attacked, and now it was payback time. A week later, I was called back to active duty in the Marine Corps. Fifteen months after that, I led 21 machine gunners during the liberation of Baghdad. Along the way, I needed expertise in firearms, optics and off-road vehicles. I needed navigational skills and physical stamina. I needed to locate my opponents by thinking like them. Above all, I needed to prevail without breaking the rules. In short, I needed to be a hunter. The parallels between hunters and infantrymen begin with our shared tools: firearms, optics and navigation equipment. During our first year at Camp Pendleton, Calif.""painfully, the home to large buffalo herd""the best hunters in my platoon showed themselves to be the most proficient Marines. The Corps teaches marksmanship under controlled conditions on known-distance courses, but rarely makes us estimate distances or prioritize targets""the exact skills needed on the battlefield. They familiarize Marines with optics, but don't practice systematic searches with binoculars. They teach antiquated compass-based navigation. Before leaving for Iraq, I drilled my men in range estimation and terrain association, and I "suggested" that they buy and master GPS units. In combat I was one of the few men who knew where I was at all times, which direction I was facing, and approximately how far away any enemies were. During a firefight in Baghdad, our reinforced platoon of 60 men was moving to link up with the rest of the company. I was the only one actively monitoring my GPS, and quickly realized we were heading the wrong way. I got the column turned toward the proper rendezvous point, where the enemies shooting at us were the intended ones, at least. I've always sought challenging hunts on roadless terrain with scattered game. Arizona Game & Fish named my buffalo hunt "one of the most difficult hunts in the state." This was small consolation for the missed opportunity, but good preparation for the Corps. Though nearly the oldest man in my unit, I kept up with the young guys during a 27-mile march with 75-pound packs, and I scored highest in physical fitness. Our three-week push to Baghdad joined stupendous mud and sandstorms with hunger and sleepless nights. Baghdad tested my physical limits, as I sprinted across intersections under heavy fire, wearing full armor and lugging belts of ammunition. Without years of rigorous conditioning, I might have been a step too slow at the wrong time. Hunters are used to failure. Most of my hunts end as my buffalo hunt did, just as most of my casts end without a trout on the line. All hunters and fishermen appreciate that unsophisticated creatures on their own terrain often outsmart the savviest outdoorsman. This makes us think like our opponents, continually reevaluate our weaknesses and learn from more successful sportsmen. The buffalo hunt taught me to walk less and glass more. In Iraq, this was equally useful against Saddam's Fedayeen militia. These irregulars lacked sophistication but understood deception, and were as hard to spot as an Arizona whitetail. I owe my life to the best hunter in my platoon, who spotted an enemy observer directing fire at us. Dressed as a civilian, the enemy observer continually peered out with binoculars from behind a wall, then disappeared again, at which point bad things always happened.Outdoor Life Online Editor
Second Runner-Up
Capt. Thomas A. Valentine Jr.
Ramstein Air Base, Germany** The night air was crisp; exhaling deeply, I could just barely see my breath. The sky was amazingly clear, and through the night-vision goggles attached to my helmet, thousands of stars twinkled brightly, bathing the desert scrub brush around me in an eerie green glow. Scanning the horizon, I watched for any signs of movement that might indicate we had walked into an ambush. Satisfied there were none, I keyed the microphone attached to my body armor and quietly whispered, "Gator, this is Stingray. All clear." My partner simply keyed his microphone twice in response, so as not to produce any unnecessary noise. We were providing perimeter security while our teammates met with a covert source, a Bedouin shepherd who lived near our base. I was the detachment commander, directly responsible for the overall success of our mission and the lives of my men. Our job was to gather human intelligence ("HUMINT") from local Iraqis like the shepherd, in order to provide advanced warning of any potential terrorist attacks against our base or convoys. I had been in Iraq for about four months, and missions like this were becoming routine""we had already thwarted three imminent attacks, and so far the insurgents in our area had not carried out a successful attack. But it was dangerous meeting with the locals, even under cover of darkness; we could never be completely sure whether the meeting might actually be a trap set to lure us into an ambush. Now, as I gazed up at the Milky Way shining so brilliantly over my head, my thoughts drifted back to another time and place, far away from the sands of the Iraqi desert... Movement caught my eye. At almost the same instant, my grandfather placed his left hand on my right shoulder as we sat in our tree stand. He quietly hissed a single word through clenched teeth: "Deer." It was getting darker by the second, and we had been planning to give up for the day in a few more minutes. But suddenly, four apparitions emerged from the edge of the woods, about a hundred yards from our stand. Slowly, I scanned the deer through the scope on my .30-06 rifle and settled on the largest of the four. I had never shot a deer before, and my heart was pounding so hard my ears were ringing. As I flicked the safety off, the deer heard the metallic click and immediately stared in our direction. I froze, and after another minute passed, they went back to grazing. Trying to steady the crosshairs as they danced a cloverleaf across the deer's chest, I gently increased pressure on the trigger… Lights appeared on the horizon. A moment later, I realized they were headlights""and they were coming our way at a fast clip. "Gator, lights at your six," I whispered. "Roger that," came the immediate reply. I crouched down behind a small sand dune and took aim at the vehicle, then quickly scanned around me to make sure this wasn't just a planned distraction. Confident there was no other movement, I reacquired the target and realized it was a small, white pickup truck, one of the favorite modes of transportation in this area. But there was no way to be sure it wasn't a threat, so I tried to flatten my body against the cold sand while flicking the selector switch on my M-4 carbine from "Safe" to "Auto." I centered the red-dot sight on the driver's head and made up my mind to start firing at approximately 70 yards out. "Stingray, I've got multiple targets in the truck." "Roger, I've got the driver," was my terse reply. Slowly, I took up the slack in the trigger and released half my breath… The recoil of the rifle took me by surprise, and before I could recover, my grandfather was slapping me on the back and shouting, "You got him!" As I gazed out into the field, three white flags were bounding quickly away from us, but there was a deer lying motionless on its side. I had doneOutdoor Life Online Editor
A few months ago, we asked U.S. servicemen and women to express their thoughts about how hunting has made them more effective in the field. The incentive? The writers of two winning essays would go on the hunt of a lifetime in Saskatchewan with Prophet Muskwa Outfitters and OL's own Jim Zumbo. Here are the two winners and the two runners-up.
How to Choose the Right Fishing Hook the First Time
Three Top Emergency Fire Starters for the Backcountry
New Whitetail Research That Will Help You Tag Your Buck
The Best Outdoor Gear Deals on Amazon's Prime Day
Make a "Bow-Range Burn" with a Small Prescribed Fire
The Secret World of Custom Balsa Crankbaits
Deer Hunting Forecast 2019
How the Ka-Bar Became America's Survival Knife
8 Best Fire-Starting Spark Rods (And How to Use Them)
How to Survive Wild Animal Attacks
A Bone Fishing Adventure on the Flats of Belize
Opencountry
In Colorado, Most State Trust Land is Closed to Public Hunting. What Gives?
Many products featured on this site were editorially chosen. Outdoor Life may receive financial compensation for products purchased through this site.
Copyright © 2019 Outdoor Life. A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


data frame is a key data structure in statistics and in R.
we need to have good tools for dealing with them.
dplyr package is designed to mitigate a lot of complex operations for data frames.
everything dplyr does could already be done with base R, but it greatly simplifies existing functionality in R.
it provides a "grammar" (in particular, verbs) for data manipulation and for operating on data frames.
the dplyr functions are very fast, as many key operations are coded in C++.
The subsequent arguments describe what to do with the data frame specified in the first argument, and you can refer to columns in the data frame directly without using the $ operator (just use the column names).
The return result of a function is a new data frame.
Data frames must be properly formatted and annotated for this to all be useful. In particular, the data must be tidy. In short, there should be one observation per row, and each column should represent a feature or characteristic of that observation.
After installing the package it is important that you load it into your R session with the library() function.
We will use a dataset containing air pollution and temperature data for the city of Chicago in the U.S.
Sometimes you may want to use only a couple of variables out of many.
Sometimes you may want to drop some variables that are not useful.
The filter() function is used to extract subsets of rows from a data frame.
We could for example extract the rows where PM2.5 is greater than 30 and temperature is greater than 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
The arrange() function is used to reorder rows of a data frame according to one of the variables/columns.
Here we can order the rows of the data frame by date, so that the first row is the earliest (oldest) observation and the last row is the latest (most recent) observation.
and the last few rows.
Columns can be arranged in descending order too by useing the special desc() operator.
Looking at the first three and last three rows shows the dates in descending order.
How would you do this in base R without dplyr?
Here you can see the names of the first five variables in the chicago data frame.
Now we rename the awkward variable names.
The mutate() function exists to compute transformations of variables in a data frame.
For example, with air pollution data, we often want to detrend the data by subtracting the mean from the data.
The group_by() function is used to generate summary statistics from the data frame within strata defined by a variable. For example, in this air pollution dataset, you might want to know what the average annual level of PM2.5 is.
First, we can create a year varible using as.POSIXlt().
Now we can create a separate data frame that splits the original data frame by year.
Finally, we compute summary statistics for each year in the data frame with the summarize() function.
In a slightly more complicated example, we might want to know what are the average levels of ozone (o3) and nitrogen dioxide (no2) within quintiles of pm25. A slicker way to do this would be through a regression model, but we can actually do this quickly with group_by() and summarize().
First, we can create a categorical variable of pm25 divided into quintiles.
Now we can group the data frame by the pm25.quint variable.
Finally, we can compute the mean of o3 and no2 within quintiles of pm25.
The pipeline operater %>% is very handy for stringing together multiple dplyr functions in a sequence of operations.
This nesting is not a natural way to think about a sequence of operations. The %>% operator allows you to string operations in a left-to-right fashion, i.e.
That can be done with the following sequence in a single R expression.
The dplyr package provides a concise set of operations for managing data frames. With these functions we can do a number of complex operations in just a few lines of code. In particular, we can often conduct the beginnings of an exploratory analysis with the powerful combination of group_by() and summarize().
The dplyr package is handy way to both simplify and speed up your data frame management code. It's rare that you get such a combination at the same time!
You'll be working with the airquality in the R package datasets. Bear in mind %>%.
Please return all the rows where Temp is larger than 80 and Month is after May.
Please add a new column that displays the temperature in Celsius.
Calculate the mean temperature in each month.
Remove all the data corresponding to Month = 5, group the data by month, and then find the mean of the temperature each month.
Chapter 13 of the book "R programming for data science".


Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) and President Miloš Zeman have congratulated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on winning the parliamentary elections. Zeman is pleased by the decision of the Israelis, hoping for further cooperation as well as moving the Czech embassy to Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Babiš published his congratulations via Twitter: "Congratulations to Mr. Netanyahu on the victory. I keep fingers crossed for him to continue his work as Prime Minister". Babiš recalled that he had recently met with the Israeli Prime Minister and invited him to visit Prague. The Czech PM described Israel as a strong and innovative nation that is a great inspiration for the Czech Republic.
President Zeman sent a congratulatory letter to Netanyahu in which he wrote: "I am pleased that the Israeli people have confirmed their agreement with your political agenda and renewed your mandate, allowing you to continue to shape not only Israeli politics but also to participate in regional and international affairs". Zeman hopes to continue the "fruitful cooperation" between the Czech Republic and Israel and to fulfil his dream of moving the Czech embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček also published his congratulations on Twitter. Petříček hopes for further development of the strategic partnership between the Czech Republic and Israel, and that the new Israeli government "will come up with particular steps towards achieving the much-needed peace in the region".
ODS Chairman Petr Fiala also appreciated the election result and said: "Likud is an ODS partner, so I congratulate Benjamin Netanyahu on his party's significant success and wish him soon to be able to form a stable right-wing government".
TOP 09 chairman Jiří Pospíšil called Netanyahu's victory a phenomenal result, recalling that Netanyahu may become Israel's longest-serving prime minister. "The elections will strengthen stability, there will be no political experiments," Pospíšil said, adding that he considers Israel to be a key ally of the Czech Republic.


text:
Election Notes 2017
Vernon Coleman
1. Diane Abbott is rapidly turning out to be the brains of the Labour party. Who'd have thought it? It is comforting to think that Corbyn's former mistress will be in charge of a major Ministry if the Millenials have their way and the Labour Party wins the election. Goody.
2. The enthusiasm for elected mayors is entertaining. No one has yet noticed that bringing in all these new mayors is merely a crafty way to reintroduce the Regional Parliaments which the EU wanted to foist upon us and which the British electorate rejected. (The London Assembly and the mini parliaments in Scotland and Wales are merely Regional Parliaments as devised and approved by Adolf's ever enthusiastic followers.)
3. It's sad to see Poland and France deciding to make Brexit as difficult as possible. Didn't we save those two sorry nations in WWII when they were overrun by Adolf and the boys? Ungrateful bastards.
4. The EU has made a mistake in interfering with the British election and annoying Theresa May. She may have been an enthusiastic Brexiteer before, but I bet she now hates the EU as much as ardent Anglophiles.
5. Nigel Farage has once again proved himself to be the most able and astute politician in Britain. Keeping out of the election which saw the demise of UKIP was a masterstroke.
6. Corbyn et al will probably vote against any Brexit deal (assuming any of them are left in the House of Commons after the June election). This is great news. No deal at all would be the best deal for the United Kingdom. We need the EU about as much as we need Luxembourg. The EU, on the other hand, needs to keep flogging us cars, washing machines and soggy cheese. Our negotiators will screw things up and if a deal is done it will doubtless be appallingly lily-livered. So, we'll be better off without one.
7. Americans who bought German diesel cars made by the appalling VW company are up to their knees in compensation. But in Britain, the unfortunate sods who bought VW cars will (thanks to Merkel and the EU) have to pay for their mistake. Moreover, it seems that anyone who listened to the Labour Party and bought any sort of diesel powered vehicle will be publicly whipped and humiliated. (There is some irony in the fact that the electric cars, which are so fashionable, run on electricity derived largely from burning diesel.)
8. In France, the pro EU presidential candidate is being supported by anarchists and anti-fascism groups. This is a sign of intense stupidity since the EU is acknowledged to be the most fascist organisation ever created. Still, no one ever claimed the French were bright, did they?
9. Populism is the latest term of abuse among the metropolitan elite. But what precisely is populism? It's political control by the people, for the people. The word 'populism' is a synonym for democracy. And that, of course, is why it is so hated by the metropolitan elite.
10. The SNP and the Welsh nationalists are going to be slaughtered in the General Election. What a shame. The leaders of both have replaced the idea of representation with disconnected hubris and, as a result, their days are over. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of nonentities.
Copyright Vernon Coleman 2017
There are hundreds of free articles on www.vernoncoleman.com and www.vernoncoleman.co.uk
For a biography please see www.vernoncoleman.org or www.vernoncoleman.net
And there are over 60 books by Vernon Coleman available as ebooks on Amazon.
I'm afraid, however, that you have to pay for those. (But not a lot.)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
class Resource;

class ResourceCache
{
	ResourceCache();
	~ResourceCache();

public:
	std::size_t GetCacheSize() const;

	template<class T, typename... Args>
	SharedPtr<T> Get(const Path& InFilePath, Args&& ... args);

	SharedPtr<Resource> GetCached(const Path& InFilePath);

	void TryToDestroy(Resource* resource);

	const std::map<std::string, std::shared_ptr<Resource>>& GetResouceStack() const;

	void Dump();

	SharedPtr<MetaBase> LoadMetadata(const Path& filePath);

private:
	std::map<std::string, std::shared_ptr<Resource>> ResourceStack;

	ME_SINGLETON_DEFINITION(ResourceCache)
};

template<class T, typename... Args>
SharedPtr<T> ResourceCache::Get(const Path& InFilePath, Args&& ... args)
{
	auto I = ResourceStack.find(InFilePath.FullPath);
	if (I != ResourceStack.end())
	{
		SharedPtr<T> Res = std::dynamic_pointer_cast<T>(I->second);
		return Res;
	}

	SharedPtr<MetaBase> metaFile = LoadMetadata(InFilePath);

	bool compiledFileExists = true;
	if (metaFile)
	{
		Path compiledAsset = Path(metaFile->FilePath.FullPath + "." + metaFile->GetExtension2());
		compiledFileExists = compiledAsset.Exists;
	}

#if ME_EDITOR || defined(ME_TOOLS)
	if (metaFile && (metaFile->FlaggedForExport || !compiledFileExists))
	{
		metaFile->Export();
		metaFile->Save();
		AssetMetaCache::GetInstance().Update(InFilePath, metaFile);
	}
#endif

	if (!InFilePath.Exists && !compiledFileExists && metaFile && !metaFile->FlaggedForExport)
	{
		YIKES("Failed to load resource: " + InFilePath.FullPath);
		return {};
	}

	SharedPtr<T> Res = MakeShared<T>(InFilePath, std::forward<Args>(args)...);
	Res->Resources = this;
	TypeId id = ClassTypeId<Resource>::GetTypeId<T>();
	Res->ResourceType = static_cast<std::size_t>(id);
	Res->SetMetadata(metaFile);
	Res->Load();
	ResourceStack[InFilePath.FullPath] = Res;
	return Res;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
/**
 * Created by guozq on 2016/3/27.
 */
package com.mysitehouse.common;


text:
Fond du Sac is a village in Mauritius located in Pamplemousses District. The village is administered by the Fond du Sac Village Council under the aegis of the Pamplemousses District Council. According to a census taken by Statistics Mauritius in 2011, the population was at 5,186.

See also
 Districts of Mauritius
 List of places in Mauritius

References

Populated places in Mauritius
Pamplemousses District

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Traceback (most recent call last): \Programs\Preprocessing.py", line 50, in tweet = json.loads(line) emoticons_str = r"""
(?:
    [:=;] # Eyes
    [oO\-]? # Nose (optional)
    [D\)\]\(\]/\\OpP] # Mouth
)"""

regex_str = [
emoticons_str,
r'<[^>]+>', # HTML tags
r'(?:@[\w_]+)', # @-mentions
r"(?:\#+[\w_]+[\w\'_\-]*[\w_]+)", # hash-tags
r'http[s]?://(?:[a-z]|[0-9]|[$-_@.&+]|[!*\(\),]|(?:%[0-9a-f][0-9a-f]))+', # URLs

r'(?:(?:\d+,?)+(?:\.?\d+)?)', # numbers
r"(?:[a-z][a-z'\-_]+[a-z])", # words with - and '
r'(?:[\w_]+)', # other words
r'(?:\S)' # anything else
]

 tokens_re = re.compile(r'('+'|'.join(regex_str)+')', re.VERBOSE | re.IGNORECASE)
 emoticon_re = re.compile(r'^'+emoticons_str+'$', re.VERBOSE | re.IGNORECASE)

 def tokenize(s):
return tokens_re.findall(s)

 def preprocess(s, lowercase=False):
 tokens = tokenize(s)
if lowercase:
    tokens = [token if emoticon_re.search(token) else token.lower() for token in tokens]
return tokens
punctuation = list(string.punctuation)
stop = stopwords.words('english') + punctuation + ['rt', 'via']
fname = 'Againpls.json'
with open(fname, 'r') as f:
lis=[]
neg=0.0
n=0.0
net=0.0
pos=0.0
p=0.0
count_all = Counter()
cout=0
for line in f:
    tweet = json.loads(line)
    # Create a list with all the terms
    blob = TextBlob(tweet["text"])
    cout+=1
    lis.append(blob.sentiment.polarity)
    #print blob.sentiment.subjectivity
    #print (os.listdir(tweet["text"]))
    if blob.sentiment.polarity < 0:
        sentiment = "negative"
        neg+=blob.sentiment.polarity
        n+=1
    elif blob.sentiment.polarity == 0:
        sentiment = "neutral"
        net+=1
    else:
        sentiment = "positive"
        pos+=blob.sentiment.polarity
        p+=1

    # output sentiment

print ("Total tweets"),len(lis)
print ("Positive "),float(p/cout)*100,"%"
print ("Negative "),float(n/cout)*100,"%"
print ("Neutral "),float(net/len(lis))*100,"%"
#print lis
    # determine if sentiment is positive, negative, or neutral

    # output sentiment
    #print sentiment

I'm using python 3.6 and i'm getting the following error when this line runs. tweet = json.loads(line) Any suggestions of what I might be doing wrong? The file does exist, but maybe not liking the values in the python.json file?
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\etang\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\Preprocessing.py", line 50, in
tweet = json.loads(line)
File "C:\Users\etang\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\json_init_.py", line 354, in loads
return _default_decoder.decode(s)
File "C:\Users\etang\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\json\decoder.py", line 339, in decode
obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
File "C:\Users\etang\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\json\decoder.py", line 357, in raw_decode
raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 2 column 1 (char 1)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Poetry Center -- Ed Pavlic from Documentary Film Institute on Vimeo.
Ed Pavlic reads then comments on the opening page from "Verbatim Palestine: June 3, 2014," from his book Let's Let That Are Not Yet: INFERNO (Fence Books, 2015), on March 10, 2016, at The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University. The full program includes Pavlic's complete reading, following a reading by David Lau, with the two poets afterward responding to questions from their audience.
The Poetry Center -- David Lau from Documentary Film Institute on Vimeo.
David Lau reads "Summer Ruins," from the manuscript to his book Still Dirty, forthcoming from Commune Editions, on March 10, 2016, at The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University. The full program includes Lau's complete reading, a reading by Pavlic and the two poets responding to questions from their audience.


This 1-Day workshop for contractors is your ticket to understanding the "Why," the "How," and the process of insurance claims.
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When you're able to put together all of these pieces after going through our Mosaic Course, life working with insurance claims is not only smoother and more fun, but more profitable as well.
Your ticket to making your insurance claim work more efficient and profitable.
*This is a limited and exclusive course, providing contractors with the insight to improve their insurance claims business.


Detection of inhibitor resistant beta-lactamases in a tertiary care centre of Manipur, India: a report of three cases.
We report three isolates of Enterobacteriaceae that resist the activity of [beta]-lactamase inhibitors.
CASE REPORTS: Case 1: A 34 years old lady from an urban area of Manipur, India presented to the outpatient department of medicine, JNIMS, Imphal on 7th December, 2012 with complaints of intermittent lower pain abdomen, frequency of micturition, dysuria and nausea for about 1week. On examination, body temperature was 38[degrees]C, hypogastrium was tender and other systems were normal. She was advised urine microscopy with culture and sensitivity, and ultrasonography of whole abdomen. USG showed normal study.
Case 2: A 67 years old man, farmer, smoker from a rural area of Manipur was admitted to male medicine ward, JNIMS, Imphal with fever, productive cough of pink-tinged sputum, exertional dyspnea and malaise for 3 weeks. There was no significant past or family history. On examination, he was underweight, body temperature 39[degrees]C, pulse 120 beats/min, BP-134/90 mmHg and respiratory rate 38 breaths/min. Auscultation of the chest revealed diffusely reduced breath sounds, rhonchi and faint inspiratory crackles in the lower right lung. There was no clubbing. Other systems were normal. Routine blood, blood sugar (Random), sputum microscopy and culture sensitivity, chest X-ray were sent. Empirical treatment of ceftriaxone and azithromycin was started. Blood test revealed leucocytosis (17,000/[mm.sup.3]), blood sugar of 90mg% and consolidation in right lower lobe of lungs on chest X-ray.
Case 3: A 28 year old lady from a rural area attended the outpatient department of medicine, JNIMS, Imphal on 12th August, 2013 with fever, chills, abdominal discomfort, urinary frequency and urgency, and dysuria for 5 days. She had similar episode one month back for which she took medicines from a pharmacy without consulting doctor. Examination showed body temperature of 39[degrees]C, tachycardia, mild pallor, mild tenderness of hypogastrium. Routine blood, urine microscopy and culture sensitivity, and USG of lower abdomen were advised. Her Hb was 9gm%, WBC-8000/[mm.sup.3] and normal USG.
Microbiological Studies of the Cases: Grossly, both the urine specimens were turbid with pH of 5.5 and 7 in case 1 and 3 respectively. Microscopically, plenty of pus cells were seen. The sputum was purulent with pinkish tinge and direct gram stain revealed gram negative bacilli with plenty of pus cells and few epithelial cells.
Identification and antibiotic sensitivity pattern of the causative bacteria from the clinical samples were performed by the Vitek 2 system (Bio Me'rieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France) following presence of pure culture of isolated colonies of the microorganisms on blood agar and Mac Conkey's agar. (9) Following the manufacturer's instructions, they were inoculated onto the identification and the AST-N280 cards, on which different concentrations of eighteen antibiotics were assayed. This system also features an Advanced Expert System (AES) that interprets the antibiotic resistance patterns, validates the results and reports the resistance phenotype, and has proved useful in calculating MIC values.
E. coli was isolated in both the urine samples and Klebsiella pneumoniae in the sputum. However, AES findings showed all of them to be inhibitor resistant beta-lactamases. The antibiogram is shown in Table-1.
Susceptibility of the three isolates to amoxicillin (30[micro]g), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (20/10[micro]g), pipercillin (100[micro]g), pipercillin/tazobactam (100/10[micro]g), cefoxitin (30[micro]g), ceftazidime (30[micro]g) was further evaluated by the Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method. (9) The phenotype amoxycillinresistant, amoxycillin plus clavulanate-resistant, pipercillin-intermediate, pipercillin/tazobactamsusceptible, cefoxitin-susceptible and ceftazidime-susceptible was observed in these isolates.
In our cases, the Vitek 2 showed concordant result with the disk diffusion method but the characterisation could not be carried out due to lack of infrastructure of molecular techniques in our institute. These isolates could be IRT or OXA enzymes or cephalosporinase hyperproduction. Despite our inability to confirm the findings, we report these cases to show the possibility of strains possessing these enzymes in Manipur and they were susceptible to ceftriaxone, cefepime, cefuroxime, imipenem, meropenem, ertapenem, colistin, amikacin, gentamicin and pipercillin-tazobactam.
CONCLUSION: The occurrence of inhibitor resistant [beta]-lactamases has been under-reported from this region. The reasons being, unreliable detection by the routine susceptibility tests, lack of automation like Vitek2 which could at least help in preliminary detection or molecular biology methods for confirmation in most institutes. In view of inadequate data regarding the incidence of these beta-lactamases in our region, we report these cases.
(1.) Chaibi EB, Sirot D, Paul G, Labia R. Inhibitor-resistant TEM [beta]-lactamases: phenotypic, genetic and biochemical characteristics. J Antimicrob Chemother 1999; 43:447-458.
(2.) Martinez JL, Vicente MF, Delgado-Iribarren A, Perez-Diaz JC, Baquero F. Small plasmids are involved in amoxycillin-clavulanate resistance in Escherichia coli. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 1989; 33:595.
(3.) Wu PJ, Shannon K, Phillips I. Effect of hyper production of TEM-1[beta]-lactamase on in vitro susceptibility of Escherichia coli to [beta]-lactam antibiotics. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 1994; 38: 494-498.
(4.) Wu PJ, Shannon K, Phillips I. Mechanisms of hyper production of TEM-1 [beta]-lactamase by clinical isolates of Escherichia coli. J Antimicrob Chemother 1995; 36: 927-939.
(5.) Reguera JA, Baquero F, Perez-Diaz JC, Martinez JL. Factors determining resistance to [beta]-lactam combined with [beta]-lactamase inhibitors in Escherichia coli. J Antimicrob Chemother 1991; 27: 569-575.
(6.) Bergstrom S, Normark S. [beta]-lactam resistance in clinical isolates of Escherichia coli caused by elevated production of the AmpC-mediated chromosomal [beta]-lactamase. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 1979; 16: 427-433.
(7.) Vedel G, Belaaouaj A, Gilly L, Labia R, Philippon A, Nevot P. Clinical isolates of Escherichia coli producing TRI [beta]-lactamases: novel TEM-enzymes conferring resistance to [beta]-lactamase inhibitors. J Antimicrob Chemother 1992; 30: 449-462.
(8.) Bonomo RA, Rice LB. Inhibitor resistant class A beta-lactamaes. Front Biosci 1999; 4: 34-41.
(10.) Kaye KS, Gold HS, Schwaber MJ et al. Variety of b-lactamases produced by amoxicillin-clavulanate-resistant Escherichia coli isolated in the Northeastern United States. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2004; 48: 1520-1525.
(11.) Wong JS, Mohd Azri ZA, Subramaniam G, Ho SE, Palasubramaniam S, Navaratnam P. [beta]-lactam resistance phenotype determination in Escherichia coli isolates from University Malaya Medical Centre. Malays J Pathol 2003; 25: 113-119.
(12.) Bret L, Peyret M, Romaszko JP, Henquell C, Sirot D, Chanal C et al. Detection of inhibitor-resistant TEM [beta]-lactamases(IRT) on ATB Plus system. In Abstracts of the Seventh European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Vienna. Abstract 167. Excepta Medica Medical Communications, Vienna, Austria, 1995.
(13.) Livermore DM, Struelens M, Amorim J, Baquero F, Bille J, Canton R, Henning S, Gatermann S, Marchese A. Multicentric evaluation of the Vitek2 Advanced expert System for interpretive reading of antimicrobial resistance tests. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2002; 49: 289-300.
(14.) Thomson CJ, Amyes SGB. Back mutations to the TEM-1 [beta]-lactamase from TRC-1 lead to restored sensitivity to clavulanic acid. J Med Microbiol 1995; 42: 429-432.
(15.) Hunter J, Corkill JE, Lennan AG, Fletcher JN, Hart CA. Plasmid encoded beta-lactamases resistant to inhibition by clavulanic acid produced by calf faecal coliforms.. Research in Veterinary Science 1995; 55: 367-370.
[1.] Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal.
[2.] Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal.
[3.] Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal.
[4.] Professor, Department of Microbiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal.
Dr. Rajkumar Manojkumar Singh, Department of Microbiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal-795005, Manipur, India.
Date of Peer Review: 06/06/2015.
Free vastus lateralis muscle flap for closure of recurrent oronasal fistula: a case report.


What does that mean? At its heart Business Analysis is Change Management. How do we adapt our businesses, our people, and our products to the rapidly changing needs of consumers and markets? Let's take a simple example. Outsourcing is a key trend of the 1990's and early 2000's. Because of the emergence of relatively cheap yet skilled labor in emerging markets, and the gradual increase of wage costs in more developed markets, companies realized they could significantly reduce costs by moving certain roles outside the country of business. Banks were among the biggest proponents of this trend. But what does that mean? Apart from identifying the best countries to move jobs too, the company had to first identify what roles they wanted to move. But that was defined on what skill sets were available in the market they were moving the jobs too. Which jobs do we move? Which jobs should stay? What are our core competencies? Who decides? Would you as head of a department ever want your division to be moved outside? No. In comes a business analyst. A business analyst will study the cost and revenue centers of a business and identify which roles can be farmed out, which should stay and which divisions would benefit the most from cuts. Before that, they would ask the question, is there a problem here at all? If so, what is the solution? They will then work with the HR team, the division head, the HR team in the country where jobs are moving too to arrive at a suitable answer or solution to the first problem – Which jobs should we move?
Once they answer that question, they go about monitoring implementation by working with numerous stakeholders. On the ground, business analysts often become project managers, the folks that get are responsible for getting the BUY-IN for a particular idea. They do this armed with data, large realms of data that can convince people that change is for the good.
In our next post will we understand the process of Business Analysis and what makes a good business analyst. Once we do that, we will then address how to become a Business Analyst.
For more details on Business Analysis, enquire with one of our counselors. The Business Analysis Certified Professional (BACP) program at Imarticus is designed for careers in Business Analysis and Project Management across various functions like Technology, Operations and Finance. After completing the IIBA Accredited, 8 week part-time program, you will gain an in-depth knowledge of Business Analysis, with a special focus on Capital Markets.


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Top 5: Things to look out for in the Championship Play-Offs
Date: 14th May 2017 at 11:05am
Written by: DanielMitchell
The Championship play-offs are underway, with the semi-finals taking place this weekend, before the final takes place on Bank Holiday Monday (May 29).
Reading ended the season with a 4-2 win over Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium and will face a Fulham side that beat a Sheffield Wednesday team that were on a run of six back to back victories.
In the other fixture, Wednesday will take on Huddersfield Town, who come into this competition off the back of two losses against Birmingham City and Cardiff City.
In last year's competition, The Owls overcame a tough Brighton and Hove Albion side to set up a final against Steve Bruce's Hull City, who only just eased past Derby County.
It was The Tigers who came out on top at Wembley Stadium after a Mohamed Diame goal in the 72nd minute secured a 1-0 win and guaranteed their promotion to the Premier League.
All four sides now have the top-flight in their sights and it really could be won by any one of these four teams.
With this in mind, here are five things that you should look out for in this season's Championship play-offs…
Click here to reveal


This great initiative organised by St Vinnies in Wellington saw me busy over Christmas. I've enjoyed every stitch and bonded with Jessie pollock very early on.
My process is about making a beginning and things develop from there. Using raw threads shows the workings of the piece.
I have a stash of treasured stuff that is very old and fitted perfectly into the vintage theme. I'm grateful for the donations from friends when tidying their cupboards. The tatting came from my late Mother's sewing box. It had a label DIC 2/6d and i used her embroidery thread. The blanket for the nurturing all the women did.
I contacted her Grandson and this is his recollection.
Thanks to Malcom Garrett her Grandson for the information.
view the link for more information.


On the hunt for a more supportive foundation? Why buy a whole new foundation when you can simply add a reinforcing bunkie board, such as the brand new Zinus Bunkie Board?
But is the Zinus Bunkie Board really supportive enough to act as a simple fix for your existing foundation? Continue reading below to find out!
Don't have enough time to read the full review? Click here to slide down to the review summary.
The Zinus Bunkie Board is perfect for sleepers who want a more supportive base without replacing the whole bed frame! Take 10% off your purchase with our exclusive discount!
10% off coupon only applies if you purchase on Zinus.com. It does not apply on Amazon or other websites.
The Zinus Bunkie Board combines a steel frame with 14 steel support slats. The slats are built with a quick lock feature, meaning they simply slide into their respective notches and lock into place. The base of the frame is held together by four steel bars and a support rod, which extends across the middle of the foundation and is held together by four screws. The four bars making up the perimeter of the frame are also held together by a total of four screws (one in each corner).
Note – this is a "bunkie board". It is not a standalone frame. This bunkie board is featured here as a support enhancer to my existing slat bed frame.
This bunkie board weighs 31 pounds for a Queen size and is 1.6" tall.
The assembly of the Zinus Bunkie Board was relatively simple. Including the unpackaging of each of the pieces, assembly took a total of about 15 minutes. That said, my cousin, Chris, was assisting me during assembly, which certainly sped up the time.
This bunkie board can be assembled by one person, but by using two people, aligning the support rods is much easier and the time taken to screw everything in was certainly reduced.
Each bracket is labeled by numbers for attachment purposes and is held together by a screw for additional support. Each of the screws was tightened with an L-shaped Hex wrench provided in the packaging.
Once the perimeter of the base was assembled and tightly screwed into place, we rested it on my current bed frame and inserted the support slats. Each slat fits nicely into a little notch located on both sides of the base. All together, assembling the Zinus Bunkie Board was fairly easy and quick.
The Zinus Bunkie Board provides a great support. When testing this bunkie board, I placed it directly on top of my existing slat platform bed. By doing so, I was able compare the support of the bunkie board / platform bed combo as compared to the support of my platform bed without the bunkie board.
While the Zinus Bunkie Board may appear virtually invisible on some platform beds / bed frames, the support offered by this foundation is impressive. The slats sit 5″ apart and are reinforced by a center rod, which extends across the entire foundation.
As noted, I placed the bunkie board on top of my flexed slat platform bed. By doing so, the bowed slats were no longer affecting my mattress, as the bunkie board sat between my mattress and the platform bed. The 1.6″ profile of the bunkie board helps create a more supportive base, as it acts as the supportive reinforcement of my existing platform bed.
The bunkie board can also be used on the ground and I would expect to see similar results, but this specific bunkie board is designed to be placed atop an existing foundation.
The one small flaw I found with the Zinus Bunkie Board was the lack of friction between my mattress and the bunkie board. As I placed my mattress on top of the bunkie board foundation, I noticed the mattress was able to slide around quite easily. I even leaned up against the mattress getting into bed one night and noticed the mattress began sliding away from me.
This tends to be the case with many steel bases, but I would have liked to see Zinus add some sort of grip to the top of its bunkie board to avoid the slipping and sliding of the mattress. To remedy this issue you may consider adding a non-slip grip mat.
Once I had the Zinus Bunkie Board fully assembled and ready to roll, I put it through a short series of tests. These tests were put into place to provide insight on how sturdy the foundation is from different angles, positions, and weights.
Shake Test – Throughout this test, I walked around the bunkie board and literally shook the foundation from all four corners. This test was designed to measure how much force can be placed on the foundation without the screws coming loose. The Zinus had no issues whatsoever with this test. Additionally, I shook the main supportive rod stretching across the middle of the foundation and the screws remained intact as well.
Sitting Drop Test – The sitting drop test is a measure of how the bunkie board will react when I stand up and drop all of my weight onto the base, in a sitting position.
Standing Drop Test – The standing drop test is similar to the sitting drop test, but it does place a little more stress at direct points on the foundation. That said, the mattress helped soften my landing, reducing the amount of stress placed on the foundation.
Flop Test – The flop test refers to literally flopping all of my weight onto the mattress / bunkie board in an abrupt manner. This test can be thought of as the way you fall into bed after a long day at work. After I dramatically fell onto the mattress, the bunkie board remained supportive and did not seem to suffer damage, however the mattress did slide around a bit.
Hammer Test – Finally came the hammer test. To my surprise, the Zinus Bunkie Board was quite resilient to forceful strikes from a hammer. After beating on the foundation at several different points, the only damage I noticed was a few cosmetic scratches. This bunkie board was able to absorb the energy from the hammer without bending or breaking.
Overall, the Zinus Bunkie Board passed my durability tests without any notable degree of damage.
Should I buy the Zinus Bunkie Board?
All in all, I'm a fan of the Zinus Bunkie Board. The low profile, supportive slats, easy assembly, and durable design all come together to help create a well-rounded, supportive base that can be added to virtually any foundation.
The low cost of this bunkie board is another plus, as it offers sleepers an easy alternative if they don't want to go through the process of purchasing a whole new foundation.
Want a more supportive base, but don't want to buy a whole new foundation – The Zinus Bunkie Board is a supportive foundation for most mattresses and can be a great option for the sleeper who is looking to add support below his or her mattress, but would rather not replace the entire bed frame.
Want to improve the support of a slat frame – slat frames, especially flexible slats, are more prone to support issues. Adding a bunkie board is a great way to add support without changing the style of the frame.
Like the idea of a thinner base – This bunkie board sits at 1.6″ thick, giving it a much lower profile than a lot of foundations I've tested.
Are on a tighter budget – At $65 for a Queen size, the Zinus Bunkie Board is a good option for the sleeper who needs a more supportive base but cannot afford to spend a lot of money.
For more information on the Zinus Bunkie Board, check them out on Amazon or on Zinus.com.
The Zinus Bunkie Board is a thin, supportive foundation designed to add support to your mattress whether it's placed on the floor or on top of your existing foundation. The combination of a simple assembly, resilient support slats, and a sleek, modern look helps to create a well valued base for your mattress.


text:
Temporal assessment of nanoparticle accumulation after experimental brain injury: Effect of particle size
Vimala N. Bharadwaj, Jonathan Lifshitz, P. David Adelson, Vikram D. Kodibagkar, Sarah E. Stabenfeldt
Nanoparticle (NP) based therapeutic and theranostic agents have been developed for various diseases, yet application to neural disease/injury is restricted by the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in a host of pathological alterations, including transient breakdown of the BBB, thus opening a window for NP delivery to the injured brain tissue. This study focused on investigating the spatiotemporal accumulation of different sized NPs after TBI. Specifically, animal cohorts sustaining a controlled cortical impact injury received an intravenous injection of PEGylated NP cocktail (20, 40, 100, and 500 nm, each with a unique fluorophore) immediately (0 h), 2 h, 5 h, 12 h, or 23 h after injury. NPs were allowed to circulate for 1 h before perfusion and brain harvest. Confocal microscopy demonstrated peak NP accumulation within the injury penumbra 1 h post-injury. An inverse relationship was found between NP size and their continued accumulation within the penumbra. NP accumulation preferentially occurred in the primary motor and somatosensory areas of the injury penumbra as compared to the parietal association and visual area. Thus, we characterized the accumulation of particles up to 500 nm at different times acutely after injury, indicating the potential of NP-based TBI theranostics in the acute period after injury.
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep29988
Published - Jul 22 2016
Intravenous Injections
Bharadwaj, V. N., Lifshitz, J., Adelson, P. D., Kodibagkar, V. D., & Stabenfeldt, S. E. (2016). Temporal assessment of nanoparticle accumulation after experimental brain injury: Effect of particle size. Scientific Reports, 6, [29988]. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep29988
Temporal assessment of nanoparticle accumulation after experimental brain injury : Effect of particle size. / Bharadwaj, Vimala N.; Lifshitz, Jonathan; Adelson, P. David; Kodibagkar, Vikram D.; Stabenfeldt, Sarah E.
In: Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, 29988, 22.07.2016.
Bharadwaj, VN, Lifshitz, J, Adelson, PD, Kodibagkar, VD & Stabenfeldt, SE 2016, 'Temporal assessment of nanoparticle accumulation after experimental brain injury: Effect of particle size', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, 29988. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep29988
Bharadwaj VN, Lifshitz J, Adelson PD, Kodibagkar VD, Stabenfeldt SE. Temporal assessment of nanoparticle accumulation after experimental brain injury: Effect of particle size. Scientific Reports. 2016 Jul 22;6. 29988. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep29988
Bharadwaj, Vimala N. ; Lifshitz, Jonathan ; Adelson, P. David ; Kodibagkar, Vikram D. ; Stabenfeldt, Sarah E. / Temporal assessment of nanoparticle accumulation after experimental brain injury : Effect of particle size. In: Scientific Reports. 2016 ; Vol. 6.
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title = "Temporal assessment of nanoparticle accumulation after experimental brain injury: Effect of particle size",
abstract = "Nanoparticle (NP) based therapeutic and theranostic agents have been developed for various diseases, yet application to neural disease/injury is restricted by the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in a host of pathological alterations, including transient breakdown of the BBB, thus opening a window for NP delivery to the injured brain tissue. This study focused on investigating the spatiotemporal accumulation of different sized NPs after TBI. Specifically, animal cohorts sustaining a controlled cortical impact injury received an intravenous injection of PEGylated NP cocktail (20, 40, 100, and 500 nm, each with a unique fluorophore) immediately (0 h), 2 h, 5 h, 12 h, or 23 h after injury. NPs were allowed to circulate for 1 h before perfusion and brain harvest. Confocal microscopy demonstrated peak NP accumulation within the injury penumbra 1 h post-injury. An inverse relationship was found between NP size and their continued accumulation within the penumbra. NP accumulation preferentially occurred in the primary motor and somatosensory areas of the injury penumbra as compared to the parietal association and visual area. Thus, we characterized the accumulation of particles up to 500 nm at different times acutely after injury, indicating the potential of NP-based TBI theranostics in the acute period after injury.",
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AU - Kodibagkar, Vikram D.
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N2 - Nanoparticle (NP) based therapeutic and theranostic agents have been developed for various diseases, yet application to neural disease/injury is restricted by the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in a host of pathological alterations, including transient breakdown of the BBB, thus opening a window for NP delivery to the injured brain tissue. This study focused on investigating the spatiotemporal accumulation of different sized NPs after TBI. Specifically, animal cohorts sustaining a controlled cortical impact injury received an intravenous injection of PEGylated NP cocktail (20, 40, 100, and 500 nm, each with a unique fluorophore) immediately (0 h), 2 h, 5 h, 12 h, or 23 h after injury. NPs were allowed to circulate for 1 h before perfusion and brain harvest. Confocal microscopy demonstrated peak NP accumulation within the injury penumbra 1 h post-injury. An inverse relationship was found between NP size and their continued accumulation within the penumbra. NP accumulation preferentially occurred in the primary motor and somatosensory areas of the injury penumbra as compared to the parietal association and visual area. Thus, we characterized the accumulation of particles up to 500 nm at different times acutely after injury, indicating the potential of NP-based TBI theranostics in the acute period after injury.
AB - Nanoparticle (NP) based therapeutic and theranostic agents have been developed for various diseases, yet application to neural disease/injury is restricted by the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in a host of pathological alterations, including transient breakdown of the BBB, thus opening a window for NP delivery to the injured brain tissue. This study focused on investigating the spatiotemporal accumulation of different sized NPs after TBI. Specifically, animal cohorts sustaining a controlled cortical impact injury received an intravenous injection of PEGylated NP cocktail (20, 40, 100, and 500 nm, each with a unique fluorophore) immediately (0 h), 2 h, 5 h, 12 h, or 23 h after injury. NPs were allowed to circulate for 1 h before perfusion and brain harvest. Confocal microscopy demonstrated peak NP accumulation within the injury penumbra 1 h post-injury. An inverse relationship was found between NP size and their continued accumulation within the penumbra. NP accumulation preferentially occurred in the primary motor and somatosensory areas of the injury penumbra as compared to the parietal association and visual area. Thus, we characterized the accumulation of particles up to 500 nm at different times acutely after injury, indicating the potential of NP-based TBI theranostics in the acute period after injury.
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Do contactless payments lead to bad spending habits?
Contactless payments are revolutionising the way we spend on smaller items.
According to data from trade body The UK Cards Association there are now 101.8 million contactless debit and credit cards in circulation in the UK, with £2.9 billion being spent using the technology in November 2016, the most recent month for which figures are available.
Richard Koch, head of policy at The UK Cards Association, said that the fact the total had increased by 184 per cent on the same month in 2015 – when contactless spending passed the £1bn mark for the first time - shows that consumers "have recognised contactless is a fast, easy and secure way to pay and are voting with their wallet at the checkout".
"There are more than 100 million contactless cards in circulation and consumers are tapping 125 times every second, not only for their lunchtime sandwich but for grocery shopping, clothes and increasingly for commuting too," he said.
However, a recent YouGov poll carried out on behalf of financial services provider 118 118 Money has suggested that contactless payments could be proving a little too convenient, with a quarter of 18 to 24-year olds saying they now spend more than they would have done previously as a result of having a contactless card.
The UK Cards Association's data found that at 88 per cent the vast majority of contactless payments are on debit cards rather than credit cards, meaning users are unlikely to get themselves into debt by tapping for their items. Indeed, Koch noted that "while technology has changed the way we pay and where we spend, it doesn't change how much we have to spend".
However, the YouGov poll found that many younger people are running out of money more quickly than before because they are using contactless to pay for things such as coffee or toiletries that they may previously have done without.
Jane Tully, director of external affairs at the Money Advice Trust, said that despite contactless payments being more convenient for consumers than having to rely on cash, they could also promote the type of impulse buying that leads to bad spending habits in the longer term.
"As we move increasingly towards a cashless society and money becomes even less tangible, we don't yet know what long-term impact this could have on spending habits and how we manage our finances," she said.
As the contactless limit is set at £30 it is unlikely that anyone will make any large impulse buys using the technology and, indeed, The UK Cards Association data showed that the average spend per contactless transaction was £8.95 in November.
However, Nick Hill, money expert at the Money Advice Service, said this just makes it even more important that we "keep track of our spending to ensure that we are being charged correctly and that we know how much money we have left".
Burgess at 118 118 Money agreed, noting that "we still need to be cautious that these little spends don't add up to an unexpected bill at the end of the month".
"Our advice would be to regularly check your account when using contactless payments to ensure you're not spending more than you think on unnecessary items, and shop around for the best deal to avoid impulse purchases with a tap of your card," he said.
The advances in technology that have made contactless payments possible in the first place can help in this regard, with mobile banking apps acting as virtual tallies in people's pockets.
"We need to be alive to the opportunities that innovation can bring – including for helping people in financial difficulty," Tully said.
Hill noted that, for the less tech-savvy, bank's text-alert services can be just as useful, with regular updates of what they have spent making people "24 per cent less likely to go into an unarranged overdraft".
At the end of the day, though, anyone who finds a cash-free, contactless world simply too difficult to stay in control of should note Tully's observation that "it is important to remember that for many people on low incomes cash remains a very useful budgeting tool".
Active or passive: how will you invest your new-year Isa allowance?
Are current account incentive offers really as good as they seem?
Is the planned Royal Mail scheme the answer to our pension woes?


Widows Sons Masonic Riders Association and Raising Cane's restaurants team up for winter clothing drive to help homeless, veterans.
Widows Sons Masonic Riders Association and Raising Cane's restaurants are once again teamed up to collect and distribute coats and winter clothing for the homeless and veterans.
Donations of adult and youth winter clothing can be dropped off at participating Cane's restaurants or at the Masonic Lodge through Dec. 7.
The Solomon's Builders chapter of the Widows Sons Sixth Masonic District successfully delivered coats, gloves, hats, scarves and more in previous efforts, according to President Ray Hahn of Clermont County.
Members of the Widows Sons will distribute the clothing in Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., in Cincinnati at 11 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 9.


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The free developer version download includes many more features and samples including color selection and button shapes. Want to test .netBUTTON on your own site / server in your ASP.NET / webforms project or in your desktop / webforms applications? Download now!


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Beneath an Indian Sky - Renita D'Silva
An unforgettable and heart-wrenching story of love, betrayal and family secrets. In colonial India a young woman finds herself faced with an impossible choice, the consequences of which will echo through the generations…
1928. In British-ruled India, headstrong Sita longs to choose her own path, but her only destiny is a good marriage. After a chance meeting with a Crown Prince leads to a match, her family's status seems secured and she moves into the palace, where peacocks fill the gardens and tapestries adorn the walls. But royal life is far from simple, and her failure to provide an heir makes her position fragile. Soon Sita is on the brink of losing everything, and the only way to save herself could mean betraying her oldest friend…
2000. When Priya's marriage ends in heartbreak, she flees home to India and the palace where her grandmother, Sita, once reigned as Queen. But as grandmother and granddaughter grow closer, Priya has questions. Why is Sita so reluctant to accept that her royal status ended with Independence? And who is the mysterious woman who waits patiently at the palace gates day after day? Soon Priya uncovers a secret Sita has kept for years – and which will change the shape of her life forever…
A breathtaking journey through India from British rule to Independence and beyond; a world of green hills, cardamom-scented air, and gold thread glinting in the sun, brought to life by Renita D'Silva's exquisite writing. If you love Kathryn Hughes, Dinah Jefferies or Kristin Hannah, this is the novel for you.
I've read most of the books written by the brilliant Renita D'Silva, and absolutely loved each and every one of them. Through her beautiful, colourful prose, she always makes me dream, taking me back in time, away from real life chaos, on enchanting journeys to and from magnificent India.
The story in 'Beneath an Indian Sky' is a poignant, character-driven tale of hope, love, guilt and betrayal revolving around three women: Sita, Mary and Priya. Sita's and Mary's stories start in the 1930s when India was under British rule. Priya's story takes place in the year 2000.
"I will run away and create my own destiny."
Sita is a rebellious, feisty young girl, outraged at the unfairness of life. Why isn't she allowed to do the things boys do? Why can't she read, study, play in the mud like her brother? Her parents can't wait to get her married, but she doesn't want to end up serving a man for the rest of her life. She doesn't want to learn how to sew, dance, sing and keep house like other girls do. Why do men have such power? Why do they get to decide what women must do? I loved Sita and her strongheaded, rebellious nature and jealous character. These will help her thrive and achieve what she's craved all her life, but at what cost!?
Mary is a lovely English girl who lives in India with her parents. She becomes best friends with Sita. Sita loves her company as it enables her to escape from her claustrophobic home where her mother rules supreme, and Mary has all that Sita misses and craves: books, freedom. Life is so unfair! Mary is not bound by any rules and regulations and is given free rein by her parents.
When tragedy strikes, the two girls' lives are changed forever. They are separated and lose all contact. Half a world away from each other, both girls embark on very different, but equally convoluted life journeys, until years later, their paths cross again. And OMG what happens then!! The story takes on an unexpected, shocking twist at this point.
Priya's marriage ends suddenly when the love of her life leaves her for a much younger girl. Her father urges her to go with him to India to take her mind off things and visit her ailing grandmother. At that point there was no way Priya could have foreseen how her life would change once she lands on Indian soil.
Okay, I honestly think this is the author's best book ever!! It's just amazing, a rollercoaster of emotions, a kaleidoscope of colours, an outburst of sights, smells and sounds. This heart-rending story made me feel all sorts of emotions: joy, hope, anger, sadness. I actually ended up with tears running down my cheeks by the end, something that has never happened to me while reading, but I couldn't help it. My emotions were all over the place and there was so much heartache and turmoil going on that it felt like opening a valve, releasing all the pent-up pressure that has been building up since the beginning of the book. That ending (WOW!) will remain imprinted on my mind for many years.
All characters, settings and details in this novel, both in the past and the present, are brought to life in vivid colour and splendour. And colour is a tool this author knows how to wield very effectively and make full use of in her spectacular descriptions of characters and locations. For example this is how she describes a typical Indian marketplace:
"...piles of rotting vegetables, mounds of potent-smelling spices in all colours of the rainbow spilling from cane baskets, lurid yellow dough confections sizzling and sputtering in huge vats of oil, cows and dogs weaving between people dressed in kaleidoscopic garb, a cacophony of noises and scents..."
So full of life and realistic, don't you think? You can visualise this scene perfectly.
An element which I liked in this book is the contrast between rich and poor. On one side, we have the tiny mud huts by the river that use a piece of cloth for door. On the other, we have the vast opulent palace of the king, with its countless enormous rooms, jaw-dropping luxuries and furnishings, beautiful gardens and courtyards. It's all portrayed so vividly that I felt as if I were there exploring and admiring all this. Another aspect I really enjoyed in this book is the inclusion of many exotic animals and birds like elephants, deer, monkeys, cheetahs, a mongoose, parrots and mynah birds.
By now you might have suspected that I really enjoyed this book, haha! I could go on and on, there's so much to say about this beautiful epic tale, its characters, the well thought out plot, the exquisite prose and all its wonderful aspects. But I'll just add one more thing - Fantastic, Ms D'Silva, simply fantastic!! Well done!!
With thanks to Bookouture for approving my request to read and review this book through Netgalley. Highly recommended!!
Renita D'Silva loves stories, both reading and creating them. Her short stories have been published in 'The View from Here', 'Bartleby Snopes', 'this zine', 'Platinum Page', 'Paragraph Planet' among others and have been nominated for the 'Pushcart' prize and the 'Best of the Net' anthology. She is the author of 'Monsoon Memories','The Forgotten Daughter', 'The Stolen Girl', 'A Sister's Promise', 'A Mother's Secret', 'A Daughter's Courage', 'Beneath An Indian Sky'.
FB: https://www.facebook.com/RenitaDSilvaBooks
Twitter: @RenitaDSilva
Website: http://renitadsilva.com/
Email: Renitadsilvabooks@gmail.com


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Home›Promotions›COVID-19: E-commerce as a Recovery Conduit for SMEs- Ayomide Oriade
COVID-19: E-commerce as a Recovery Conduit for SMEs- Ayomide Oriade
COVID-19 global health crisis unleashed a far-reaching socio-economic impact that forced thousands of firms to fold up and put several thousand at the risk of being forced out of business. Most affected are Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) who are the major economic drivers. Global economy pre-COVID was estimated at $90 trillion. Following the pandemic, estimates so far indicate that the virus could trim global economic growth by 3% to 6% in 2020, global trade could also fall by 13 to 32%, assuming there's no second wave of infections.
Bringing it home, the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations initially predicted that COVID-19 pandemic may lead to loss of 13 million jobs in Nigeria. As the pandemic hit hard on the Nigerian economy, Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning stated that the COVID-19 pandemic is projected to have affected 21 million jobs in the country. MSMEs account for over 65% of jobs and employment in Nigeria. It thus takes a simple economic calculation to decipher that these job losses are results of businesses forced to close shop in the thick of the pandemic and its resultant restrictive measures. Apt pointer to this is the report of a research conducted by the Nigeria Consultative Association (NECA), which revealed that 74.2% of businesses in Nigeria stopped operating due to the pandemic.
Online marketplace as a conduit for sales
With the realities of COVID-19, businesses are being forced to learn, unlearn, rethink and restrategize their model, and ecommerce has emerged the surest route to survival and sustenance, especially for SMEs. The pandemic is moving a key component of the marketing mix, (place – the meeting point for customer and seller) to online platforms, businesses are thus required to increase online presence and grow sales using digital tools.
Buttressing this, the Enterprise Development Centre of the Pan-Atlantic University recently conducted a survey on the impact of coronavirus on small businesses. About 88% of MSME owner-respondents said they would tinker with their business models, with 47% likely to consider new businesses due to the harsh realities of the pandemic. These are mainly due to the influence of technology which has now re-defined the way business is done.
For SMEs in the Nigerian economic space, the ecommerce industry appears to be channeling a path to recovery, by providing a meeting point with customers in the emerging shopping order. "In the last few months, we've seen that e-commerce is crucial to the Nigerian economy, with more people shifting their activities online at a faster pace: working and shopping are coming online faster than we thought and imagined before. Jumia became a place where communities across Nigeria came to buy all sorts of products: groceries, fashion. During this time, more brands come online to partner with Jumia by putting their products and services on our platform or advertising offers on Jumia Advertising," said Jumia Nigeria CEO, Massimiliano Spalazzi.
How Ecommerce helps SMEs
The framework for ecommerce operations are flexible, cost-effective, and offers wider reach- which is crucial for SMEs during this time. Using Jumia as a case study, SMEs can easily leverage the offerings of the platform to reach more audience and make more sales. "Sellers interested in listing his products/wares on the platform can easily apply on the site. We verify the authenticity of the products and checks if the seller has all the legal prerequisites to sell, especially for products sold only if recommended by an expert. We thereafter train the seller on how to use the website and make revenue. It's as simple as that," said Chief Commercial Officer, Jumia Nigeria, Omolola Oladunjoye.
Interestingly, the display of products on ecommerce platforms such as Jumia, Konga, Jiji and the likes within the Nigerian space attracts no hidden charges. Aside from benefiting from the clout of ecommerce brands, the financial investment needed for marketing is also covered for sellers by these platforms. This is a huge overhead SMEs can do without in their COVID survival battle. Ecommerce platforms like Jumia bear financial requirements for online and offline advertising, search engine optimization, and social media exposure for sellers on their platform. There are also special campaigns like Tech Week, Black Friday and Anniversary Campaigns during which sellers on ecommerce platforms benefit from high customer traffic to improve their sales volume.
Getting rent off the bill will be a huge relief for any business in these tough times, and this is where warehouse facilities of ecommerce platforms come in handy for sellers. Most ecommerce companies have large warehouses in almost all major cities. For instance, Jumia has its largest warehouse in Lagos. There are other storage warehouses owned by the company in commercial nerve centers across the country. Jumia has hundreds of pickup stations in Nigeria, while Konga also said it has improved on warehouse sites nationwide. Another crucial benefit is the speed and ease of shipment sellers can leverage on ecommerce platforms. Given the recent surge in online patronage triggered by the pandemic, Nigeria ecommerce leaders like Jumia and Konga said they have upped their last-mile capacity with more delivery partners and associates.
From all indications, embracing the marketing features of online stores would be key for SMEs in their quest for survival and sustainability in the new market realities imposed by the pandemic. The good news for Nigerian SMEs is that the ecommerce landscape also provides several options that can be leveraged for their business revival.
Ayomide Oriade, a Public Relations Executive writes from Lagos
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1. Xllth Std. (Senior School Certificate Examination) passed from a recognized Board/Institution.
2. 02 years Diploma in Dialysis Technology from a recognized University/Institution or its equivalent.
3. Must pass trade test being conducted by the Department.
Desirable: Bachelor's Degree in Dialysis Technology from a recognized University/Institution with 2 years working knowledge in field.


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HRC Global Travels to Indonesia for World Bank Meetings
By Jeremy Kadden
This week, HRC is in Indonesia, joining a group of Southeast Asian LGBTQ activists to meet with World Bank officials during the Bank's annual fall meetings. The meetings are an important opportunity to continue advancing the case for greater inclusion of LGBTQ people in World Bank-funded programs with Bank officials and other key policymakers.
"With LGBTQ people under threat in so many countries around the globe, we must use every possible lever we have to help protect and defend their fundamental human rights," said HRC Global Director Ty Cobb. "The World Bank is just such a lever, and we look forward to seeing our advocacy yield more and more results at the Bank in the coming years."
In order to make the case for greater inclusion, HRC is meeting with both Bank staff and U.S. government officials who help to set Bank policies. With local LGBTQ partner organizations like APCOM and GAYa NUSANTARA Foundation, HRC cosponsored an LGBTQ-focused event at the meetings called "SOGIESC Inclusion in Regional MDBs - Taking a Leaf Out of the World Bank's Playbook." The event featured stories from LGBTQ people from around the region and a panel discussion with Bank officials about how the World Bank and other development organizations can engage more to help address anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
The World Bank has long been a chief focus for advocacy groups because of its enormous financial power and leverage. With an annual budget of more than $65 billion, the World Bank exerts a great deal of influence in its client countries, many of which have policies or laws that harshly target LGBTQ people.
This means that even in a country where LGBTQ people are criminalized, the Bank can use its programs to set policies and standards that improve the environment for LGBTQ people and other vulnerable groups. If, for example, the Bank is funding an educational project, it can use its power to ensure that LGBTQ students are fully included in the program or that it works to stop bullying of children with diverse sexual orientations or gender identities.
In recent years, due to the advocacy of HRC and other organizations, the Bank has taken a number of positive steps to advance LGBTQ inclusion, such as appointing a sexual orientation and gender identity advisor, and funding research into the economic well-being of LGBTQ people in certain countries. However, the Bank could take additional steps, like protecting LGBTQ people in its "safeguards" policies that recently took effect, which require both the Bank and its client countries to protect vulnerable people and the environment. HRC was disappointed when LGBTQ people were not included in those new policies due to objections from a number of anti-LGBTQ governments.
For more information about HRC's work to advance equality around the world, check out hrc.org/Global.
Filed under: International
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Reckhaus, Michael ; Hochgeschwender, Nico ; Plöger, Paul G. ; Kraetzschmar, Gerhard K.
The development of robot control programs is a complex task. Many robots are different in their electrical and mechanical structure which is also reflected in the software. Specific robot software environments support the program development, but are mainly text-based and usually applied by experts in the field with profound knowledge of the target robot. This paper presents a graphical programming environment which aims to ease the development of robot control programs. In contrast to existing graphical robot programming environments, our approach focuses on the composition of parallel action sequences. The developed environment allows to schedule independent robot actions on parallel execution lines and provides mechanism to avoid side-effects of parallel actions. The developed environment is platform-independent and based on the model-driven paradigm. The feasibility of our approach is shown by the application of the sequencer to a simulated service robot and a robot for educational purpose.
Shakhimardanov, Azamat ; Hochgeschwender, Nico ; Reckhaus, Michael ; Kraetzschmar, Gerhard K.
Most of the recent robot software frameworks follow a component-oriented development approach. They allow developers to compose a distributed application from a set of interacting components. Though these frameworks provide rich functionality, often they fail to cope with non-functional aspects (e.g., network scalability, predictability of system behavior) involved in system design, especially in distributed settings. This research sets out to address aforementioned quality attributes by introducing a pragmatic model, Protocol Stack View (PSV), for the analysis of distributed robotic software. The model relies on the fact that a distributed software can be viewed in terms of three main elements: components, ports and connectors. It specifically focuses on structure and semantics of software connectors on the implementation level. To prove effectiveness and usefulness of PSV a set of experiments were conducted to analyze scalability and to determine the configurable elements that affect it. The experiments are based on the comparison of communication infrastructure provided by two existing software packages, namely ROS and ZeroMQ.


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Three opinions, no grants [Dec. 21, 2012]
Monday, January 7th, 2013 by Don Cruse · Add a Comment
The Court's final orders list of 2012 was issued on December 21, 2012. The Court issued opinions in three cases. It did not select any new cases for oral argument.
Contract interpretation
EL PASO FIELD SERVICES, L.P. AND GULFTERRA SOUTH TEXAS, L.P. F/K/A EL PASO SOUTH TEXAS, L.P. v. MASTEC NORTH AMERICA, INC. AND MASTEC, INC., No. 10-0648
Motion for rehearing filed on January 7, 2013
Opinion of the Court
Dissenting
The Court was asked to interpret a pipeline-construction contract to determine whether one party had failed to disclose the existence of "foreign crossings" of the pipeline path (which would raise the construction costs) or whether the other party was responsible for doing its own due diligence.
Justice Green wrote for a six-Justice majority, holding that the contract plain language allocated all the risk to MasTec. The Court rejected the argument that other language in the contract about due diligence modified this provision. The Court also rejected the argument that El Paso's disclosure of only about 35% of these "foreign crossings" fell below an industry standard of 85-90% as being irrelevant to construing this contract.
Justice Guzman wrote a dissent arguing that the Court's approach ignored the rule that specific provisions control over general provisions.
Interlocutory appeals from pleas to the jurisdiction
THE CITY OF HOUSTON v. THE ESTATE OF KENNETH SAMUEL JONES, DECEASED, No. 10-0755
Per Curiam
The Court held that a second plea to the jurisdiction filed by a governmental entity was merely a rehash of its earlier (denied) plea, and thus it did not restart the statutory 20-day clock for filing an interlocutory appeal.
Jurisdiction over child custody orders
IN RE CARRIE DEAN, No. 11-0891
Concurring
The Court held that Texas courts did not have "home state" jurisdiction over child custody for "a child who was born in New Mexico and has lived there all his life."
This case arose in an unusual posture. A New Mexico trial court had already "ceded jurisdiction to Texas" — an order that is still being tested on appeal in New Mexico. (( Footnotes 7 and 8 (on page 5 of the slip opinion) discuss these New Mexico procedures. On appeal, the New Mexico intermediate appellate court has issued "proposed summary dispositions," which would have concluded that the child's home state was New Mexico. One of the parties objected, and the Court decided to schedule the case for its general calendar for later disposition. )) Because the Texas Supreme Court has now held that Texas courts do not have "home state" jurisdiction, the case is in limbo.
Accordingly, the opinion orders the Texas trial court "to confer immediately with the New Mexico Court of Appeals, where the case is currently pending." If the New Mexico court determines that Texas is the appropriate forum, then the custody questions can move forward. Otherwise, the custody issue should be dismissed.


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TelanganaGWMC set to revive defunct planetarium
GWMC set to revive defunct planetarium
By P. Laxma Reddy
Published: 3rd Jul 2021 11:32 pm
Prataparudra Planetarium building which is in a bad shape in Warangal. — Photo: Ch Shyam Sunder
Warangal Urban: The revival of Hinduja Prataparudra Municipal Planetarium is all set to be a reality. The authorities of the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) have prepared reports which will be submitted to the government on the planetarium's revival, thanks to the directions from Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) KT Rama Rao.
According to the sources, the Minister has recently asked Mayor Gundu Sudharani to take the steps for the revival of the planetarium which has been defunct for the last eight years.
Speaking to Telangana Today, an official said that there had been a demand for a long time for the revival of the planetarium. "However, the previous council did not show much interest for the revival," he said adding that there is a need for at least Rs 60 lakh to Rs one crore to get the modern equipment and seating facility at the planetarium. "Earlier, one Pune-based company visited the GWMC and explained their technology and equipment. But the then council did not take any call on it," he added.
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The Prataparudra Municipal Planetarium was set up in 1983 following the efforts of former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao. The planetarium earned a sparkling reputation among students as well as science enthusiasts for nearly three decades. The planetarium had actively involved in promoting scientific temper among school children and youngsters and it used to attract hundreds of visitors every day. But the projector, setup at a cost of Rs 30 lakh stopped working in 2007.
"Since the manufacturing of the spare parts of this German-made projector was also stopped, we could not repair it. However, we continued to conduct the shows by setting up an LCD projector from 2007 to 2011 as there was a demand for the shows. We used to conduct 10 to 12 shows a day between October and March in a year and 4 to 5 shows in the remaining months of the year," said an official.
The price of the high-end projector is around Rs 5 to 7 crore and low-end projector is around Rs 80 lakh, said another official.
"Unfortunately, the planetarium in Warangal which we visited many times during our childhood has faded into oblivion. Rather than spending crores of money in the name of beautification, it is more important to spend money and revive such things which will ignite young minds," said P Shiva Kumar, a resident of Balasamudram in Hanamkonda, and urged the government to revive the planetarium.
"In a time when quality science education is more important than ever, a scientifically literate public is an essential part of the progress of any country. Planetariums around the world both inspire and educate people of all ages about our surroundings-the earth itself and our place in the universe and they are often a place in which young people become enthused to follow a scientific career. Many of today's leading scientists chose their careers because they were captivated by the experience of a planetarium visit," said former professor Dr Srinivas Vooradi.
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Hinduja Prataparudra Municipal Planetarium
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It's not the renowned writer himself that's the problem, writes a pastor who grew up in and serves rural communities. But his writing projects an idealized vision of rural life that ignores current realities.
If you are in ministry, Wendell Berry is ubiquitous. If you are in rural ministry, he is inescapable.
His poems are read as lectio divina at retreats. He is quoted in conference presentations and referenced in sermons. He is the subject of documentaries. An album of his poems arranged for a choral group can be downloaded on Spotify (which seems ironic, given his disdain for technology).
There is a great deal about Wendell Berry and his writing that I respect and admire. Yet I find that his idealized vision of rural life is not helpful -- especially for people who have never lived in the country.
I grew up in a rural town, the kind you would read about in one of Berry's novels. During the summer, I would wake up early and ride with my mom, a schoolteacher, to my great-aunt's house. We would pick corn, green beans, butter beans and potatoes in her garden. I would sit with my cousins snapping green beans and peeling butter beans, and we'd spend hours upon hours shucking corn.
In the fall and winter, I would walk with my older sister to the elementary school a few blocks away. Afterward, I would congregate with the rest of the neighborhood kids or wander in and out of the local shops on the main street.
In high school, I started working at one of those shops, a small family-owned grocery store. I stocked shelves, bagged groceries and carried the bags out for our customers -- people I knew by name. The butcher, the baker, the owner and the assistant manager had, quite literally, known me since birth.
It was a place of safety and stability, filled with people I knew and loved, and who knew and loved me. I could depend on them, and they each had a hand in shaping and forming me.
On the surface, my town was a picturesque embodiment of Berry's community. But there's another part of the story. The local textile mill closed in the 1990s. Ever since a massive flood in 1999, residential streets have sat empty, their houses demolished and never rebuilt after FEMA buyouts.
When I was in high school, tobacco farmers would leave their crops to die in the fields because it was cheaper to let a crop go to waste than to harvest it and not be able to sell it. When Walmart came to town, our small grocery store was forced to close.
It was insulting, and I became desperate to prove that I belonged. I worked to drop, or at least soften, my thick Southern accent. Each assignment became a competition, and not just about the grade. I wanted to show that I could do the work faster, more efficiently and with less apparent effort than my classmates.
"Rural" became something to escape.
The account of a deadly winter in the novel "Jayber Crow" showcases the beauty of community and family, for example, but leaves unexplored the emotional and psychological impact of the devastation and loss. People who expand their farms are cast as greedy villains rather than farmers trying to survive in a competitive market.
Yet what really bothers me is not Berry's work itself -- literature that simply tells the story the author wants to tell. What bothers me most is its influence on people who don't spend their days working in a rural setting.
Too often, people use Berry in a way that commodifies rurality. Rural places become picturesque landscapes where life is simple, communal and agrarian. Rural places can be enjoyed at a distance but aren't places in which to serve, live and work.
I love rural places. Rural communities are particularly fertile for creative ministry, and I am optimistic about the ways our rural churches and communities can grow, thrive and lead in our rural spaces.
Yet I am wary of idealism about rural life and its future.
That idealism allows my urban colleagues to disengage from rural spaces, giving them permission to ignore the ways our communities are interconnected. It allows people to believe that rural churches and communities have nothing to teach except as a nostalgic model.
That oversimplification allows leaders in government, in business, and even in our denominations to offer one-size solutions that fail to take seriously the complexity of our rural places.
The truth is, Berry's way of life, for most of us, is impossible. It's much easier to read his poems and essays as a beautiful, idealized version of the world.
But if we're not careful, idealism can too easily morph into fantasy. Fantasy, as even Berry reminds us, isn't all that helpful.
Fantasy cannot restore, because it refuses to see what is real. Our rural communities deserve better than romantic images. They deserve leaders who see their faithfulness, strength and gifts and sit in the grittiness of reality. Our rural communities deserve leaders who live in and cherish that complexity.